Reviewed by Rebecca Harkins-Cross

THE Kin Collective was formed after its members met in an acting masterclass, and in many ways these origins show. Devised through a process of improvisation, their debut work feels like a collection of character sketches with its unifying theme a strained afterthought.

Offering brief snippets of various lives intersecting and falling apart, Glimpse is loosely about failures of communication. The show opens with a raving hobo (Dan Hamill) directly addressing the audience like some mad soothsayer. It soon becomes clear that apparently our greatest fear is one another.

Here family is a site of alienation rather than affinity: an estranged brother and sister bicker while their mother lies dying in the oncology unit; a mother and daughter struggle to interact beyond caring for their husband/father afflicted with MS; a son gives a eulogy at his mother's funeral where he confesses they didn't know each other at all.

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It is through encounters with strangers that they each discover a shared humanity: a famous actor begins a flirtation with his daughter's homely drama teacher; two lost souls in a church find connection in their shared sadness.

This is a fine group of actors, both established and emerging, and Glimpse is filled with good performances - notably Marg Downey, Laura Maitland and Dan Hamillo. But the concluding sentiment that strangers share more connections than we may initially think is obvious and unsatisfying.